In 2015, young presidential candidate Donald Trump dictated a letter for his doctor to sign, testifying that if he succeeded, he would be “the healthiest person ever elected president.”
Since then, his detractors have mocked his bare cheek (the letter also stated that his “physical strength and endurance are extraordinary”), while continuing to darkly warn that a man his age, with his diet of fast food and Diet Coke, and his exercise regimen (or lack thereof) cannot possibly be healthy.
His critics' insistence that the new US president is one Big Mac away from a heart attack may contain an enormous amount of wishful thinking, but it has nevertheless been trumpeted incessantly for years.
What is happening under those strategically oversized suits cannot be good, they shout in unison – no matter what the helpful doctors say.
Even his wife is reportedly concerned. Last November, it was claimed that Melania and Robert F Kennedy Jr., his nominee for health secretary, were “teaming up” with Trump to adopt a healthier diet – replacing lean proteins, salads and vegetables with fast food.
Two former Trump associates have testified that a typical Trump McDonald's order included two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish and a chocolate milkshake. A total of 2,430 calories.
And yet, if there's one area where Trump continues to challenge the naysayers, it's his health and, perhaps more importantly for the “leader of the free world,” his endurance.
Admittedly, Trump has benefited from being compared to Joe Biden, now 82, whose declining mental and physical faculties were shockingly hidden for years.
US President Donald Trump works behind the counter during a campaign event at McDonald's restaurant on October 20 last year
U.S. President Donald Trump and Florida Congressman Byron Donalds receive their order from Downtown House of Pizza in downtown Fort Myers in April 2023
Donald Trump drives a golf cart prior to the LIV Golf Invitational Series tournament at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in August 2023
Yet Trump was so confident in his own abilities during last year's election campaign that, writing on X in October, he challenged Kamala Harris – eighteen years his junior – to take a test on “cognitive endurance and agility ', after his supporters claimed they were 'slow and lethargic in answering even the easiest questions'.
On Monday, at 78 and 220 days old, he became the oldest person ever inaugurated as president. He defeated Biden, who was five months younger when he took the oath of office four years ago. One of his first acts was to reinstall a button on his desk in the Oval Office that automatically requests a glass of Diet Coke.
He didn't exactly do a backflip at his swearing-in, but he also didn't shuffle along with his wife and aides watching like hawks for signs that he was about to topple — as was the case with Biden.
And while Uncle Joe couldn't even be trusted to ask for the time if the question wasn't written out for him on a teleprompter, Trump still prefers to speak extemporaneously: of the two speeches he gave in the Capitol loved – one with a script and one, later, without one – there was little to choose between them in terms of his fluency and articulation.
And it was a marathon day for him. He attended a morning church service, had tea at the White House with Biden, spoke for half an hour at his swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol, gave an even longer post-inaugural address, attended a congressional luncheon, discussed the troops, gave another speech during his presidential parade indoors and signed dozens of executive orders in the Oval Office.
He then attended three inaugural balls, where, among other things, he gave another ten-minute speech, talked to troops in South Korea via a video feed, cut a cake with a saber, and danced (three times) with Melania.
And he still had enough energy to repeatedly show off his signature fist-pump dance at YMCA of the Village People (who had performed live at the second ball he attended).
Even his harshest critic can't deny that this isn't bad for a 78-year-old (and remember, who, after being shot in the ear by an assassin last July, was back on his feet within seconds, punching the air defiantly) .
Donald Trump, his son Donald Jr, Elon Musk and RFK Jr with their McDonald's meal on the way to the UFC fight
Donald Trump eats a McDonald's
President Donald Trump arrives to deliver pizza to the Waukee Fire Department in January 2024
Corey Lewandowski, who managed Trump's 2016 campaign, recalled how he “would go to work 14, 16 or 18 hours a day and not eat because he was so focused like a professional athlete.”
What is his secret? Trump himself certainly has some ideas, even if they aren't necessarily shared by the experts. For starters, Trump — whose older brother, Fred, died of alcoholism — says he never drank alcohol, smoked cigarettes or used drugs.
Less healthily, he sleeps only four to five hours a night and considers golf his “primary form of exercise.” Even then, he doesn't walk between holes, but uses a golf cart.
Trump has justified this physical inactivity by promulgating a strange theory – popular among Victorians, but hardly any more these days – that the body is like a battery with a finite amount of energy. Exercising depletes that battery and actually damages yourself.
What else could be relevant? Scientists say genes play a role in health and life expectancy.
Trump's father, Fred, a property developer, lived to be 93, while his mother, Mary Anne, the poverty-hardened daughter of a farmer on Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, lived to 88.
And as the son of a wealthy man, Trump will undoubtedly have benefited from the best medical treatment throughout his life.
Despite his claims to the contrary, critics have recently said there is evidence that Trump's mental and physical abilities are declining.
The New York Times – one of his most enthusiastic critics – analyzed his speeches in October and concluded that he had lately appeared “confused, forgetful, incoherent or disconnected from reality.”
But others might point out that not much has changed there. Trump has always made blunders, for example in 2019 by claiming that the rebels had 'taken over the airports' from the British during the 1770 American War of Independence.
President Donald Trump addresses the crowd during a campaign rally on October 6, 2018 in Topeka
Opponents have also pointed to Trump's reluctance to publish his medical records. Presidential candidates in the US are not required to release medical information about themselves, and despite polls showing many voters questioning Trump's advancing age, he has been even more cautious than Biden about releasing his medical records.
In 2018, while he was president, his White House doctor released a letter about his health that experts said showed he was borderline obese and had heart disease.
Over the next two years, doctors revealed that his weight had risen to just under 17.5 stone, making him officially obese, but no further details have been released since he left office.
As for his brain, Trump has said he has taken cognitive tests twice, but he has not released them and has not said whether he has taken any since 2018.
Trump has revealed that his father, Fred, was “addicted to Alzheimer's disease” and some experts have said he could have an increased genetic risk of dementia.
The speculation will inevitably continue and any new mistake – physical or verbal – will be presented as evidence.
Trump himself admitted in a 2022 interview that his health might prevent him from running for president again.
'You should always talk about health. You look like you're in good health, but tomorrow you'll get a letter from a doctor telling you to come see me again,” he told the Washington Post. “That's not good when they use the word 'again,'” he said.
And yet here he is back in the White House, and – for better or worse – just like his old self.
